In an Indiana Primary you may choose either a Democratic Ballot OR a Republican Ballot. You may NOT vote in both Primaries.Circuit Court, along with Superior Court and Superior Court 2, handles major criminal cases, domestic relations cases, and major civil cases. Circuit Court has exclusive jurisdiction in all probate matters, including estates, guardianship, adoptions, and trusts. Circuit Court shares jurisdiction over juvenile matters with Superior Court 3, but Superior Court 3 handles nearly all of those cases. Judges are required to have law degrees and usually serve a term of 6 years after a general election. Term: 6 years
Education
University of Wyoming College of Law, JD (2001); Purdue University, BS MGMT (1996)
Experience in Leadership and Management
Tippecanoe County Magistrate (2011); Judge of Tippecanoe Superior Court No. 5 (2015); Judge of Tippecanoe Circuit Court (2018)
Several years ago, two family law attorneys started outlining issues in a parenting time dispute. They mentioned that one of the parties’ two teenage children was receiving counseling for pornography addiction. I asked about the teenage boy’s counseling, and they quickly corrected me. It was the parties’ teenage daughter, not son, who was struggling with pornography. I was appalled that I had not even considered this possibility.
This opened my eyes to the fact that stereotypes can cloud my thinking. It humbled me, and reminded me that I need to work hard to keep an open mind at all times. I have tried to educate myself by reading about bias. I attended an outstanding educational seminar about implicit bias.
There is no balancing. Being fair and independent is paramount, and will always be more important than being elected or re-elected.
This is an important question right now because many citizens question the independence of our judiciary, including the United States Supreme Court. Courts cannot be partisan, should not follow party lines, and must review each case on the merits.
One of the greatest honors I have had on the bench is being selected to serve as Special Judge, by agreement of the parties, on cases that are politically charged. I appreciate the confidence they have in my ability to be fair and correctly apply the law.
I will continue to utilize remote hearings when appropriate, particularly in the areas of guardianships and civil commitments. For example, it is not unusual for a person with severe autism to attend a hearing while sitting on a couch at home surrounded by family, or for an elderly person with dementia to attend a hearing from a nursing home. It took a pandemic for us to realize changes were needed to allow greater access to the courts.
Perhaps the most significant change I have made since taking the bench in Tippecanoe Circuit Court is appointing pauper counsel for every civil commitment case and regularly appointing a guardian-ad-litem on certain guardianship cases.
According to the IOCS’s statistics, Tippecanoe Circuit Court has been one of the regions busiest courts for the last several years. I plan to work with other judges to try to balance the caseloads of our courts so that each case gets the time and attention it deserves.
I hope to grow our Veteran’s Treatment Court program, which runs through the Tippecanoe Circuit Court. At any given time, we assist 5 to 10 Veterans facing serious criminal charges as a term of their probation. I’d like to open the program to Veterans facing less serious charges on a pretrial basis, with an opportunity for dismissal and expungement upon graduation.
